There’s finally proof that everyone has bad days, including future NBA draft pick Nick Collison.

Collison, an Iowa Falls native, will lead the Kansas Jayhawks against Duke Thursday in a regional semifinal game in the NCAA tournament. He was an honorable mention All-American last season and is a strong candidate again this year as he and fellow Iowan Kirk Hinrich have led the Jayhawks to the regular season Big 12 championship and a 27-7 record.

He’s averaging 18.5 points and 9.3 rebounds per game. He was recently named this season’s Big 12 Player of the Year.

The honors and accolades go on and on.

Despite all the success, Collison isn’t too popular around these parts. He turned down Iowa and Iowa State to play for Roy Williams and was booed during the starting lineups — with most of the abuse coming from the student section — when Kansas and Iowa State squared off this season.

It’s a regular occurrence when he plays in Ames.

Opposing high school teams didn’t like Collison much either as he led the Iowa Falls Cadets to a 101-1 record and won two state titles during his four years.

It was one of those games, when Iowa Falls was dismantling another conference foe, that this 6-foot-9 center was humbled.

When I say humbled, read “de-pantsed.”

The Clarion-Goldfield Cowboys had traveled to Iowa Falls to face the Cadets one night in 1999. Iowa Falls used a press defense the entire first half — with Collison and the rest of the starters playing most of it — to jump out to a 66-11 halftime lead.

This was taking the term “running up the score” to a new level. And nobody likes when people do that. Just ask opponents of the Florida Gators football team when Steve Spurrier was there.

Then in the middle of game-play it happened.

Shorts to the ankles.

Having experienced the art of de-pantsing first-hand, there was nothing Collison could have done to stop the act.

I tried to catch up with Collison on the phone about a month ago, to find out exactly what happened. I was told by officials at KU basketball that he was “pretty busy” and there wasn’t a chance that I could talk with him.

But I couldn’t just let this one get by. It’s Collison’s senior season and he’s in the NCAA tournament right now.

It’s not every day that you learn about someone as well-known as Collison having such a humiliating moment. Some could argue that this isn’t newsworthy because Collison is just another guy, but he sure doesn’t play like just another guy. He’s in the spotlight.

And then I found out the guy who whipped his shorts down to his ankles is one of our own — a fellow ISU student.

After several attempts, we weren’t able to contact the ISU student who was the culprit on the night in reference. To protect his privacy, we won’t print his name without his permission.

But if it were me, I would have done the same thing. In my opinion, it was just a way of evening the score. Iowa Falls was embarrassing them — and made it worse by using a press defense, which is uncalled for when you’re up by more than 10.

It’s only fair that they felt some embarrassment. Eye for an eye.

Just a couple weeks ago, after Kansas knocked Iowa State out of the Big 12 tournament, I was able to get Collison’s side of the story. With Hinrich whistling obnoxiously in the shower, I asked Collison about the proudest moments of his high school career.

“Both the titles were a lot of fun,” Collison said. “There’s nothing better than that — playing with your best friends and just going out and killing people with your best friends.”

With a KU trainer giving me a nasty look the whole time, I quizzed Collison about what exactly went down that night against Clarion-Goldfield.

Collison said it wasn’t a big deal, but was pretty animated about it at the same time.

“They sucked,” Collison said. “They were 0-16 and had to do something to get some attention.”

He said he wasn’t really ticked off or embarrassed when it happened.

“It was just stupid,” Collison said. “I was kind of surprised that he did it.”

The insanity of the Clarion-Goldfield-Iowa Falls basketball game didn’t stop there. With the Cadets sitting on 98 points, and the crowd ready for the Iowa Falls bench to break the century mark, a Clarion-Goldfield player scored their final two points for them.

And the Iowa Falls crowd, who had been boisterous, fell silent.

“They scored the 100th point in our basket,” Collison said. “They just took it and scored it in our basket. Garbage.”

It may be garbage, but it sure is funny.